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My boat floor is in 3 sections, fixed outer sections and the removable center section covering the bilge and mechanical stuff. I knew the removable center section of the boat floor was soft and was hoping to just replace that. After pulling the carpet back, though, I found a few questionable spots, so I started to cut out the soft spots and found the entire floor is rotten. Underneath the side floors, instead of crossbracing, they filled it with expandable foam, that's why I couldn't tell the sides were rotten. Even though it was rotten it was supported by all this foam. Unfortunately the foam soaked up all of the water that seeped under the floor and helped speed up the water damage.
I replaced the floor from the dash back. I left the bow cause it was just too much work and it doesn't get much weight put on it. After cutting out the original floor and removing all the foam, had to wait a few days for it to completly dry out. I had to cut, form and fiberglass in crossbraces 'cause I wasn't about to fill it with foam again. After the crossbraces were in, obviuosly the next step is the actual floor. I used fiberglass resin to seal the bottom, then screwed it to the crossbraces and fiberglassed the whole thing to the boat. I put on an extra layer around the outer edges. I even sprayed a coat of sealer to be safe. It is WAY stronger than before, it doesn't seem to rattle or make as much noise when bouncing across the lake.
Had my local upholsterer put in the carpet. He is a former WyoTech teacher, so he really knows his stuff. He covered up all my mistakes and made it look really good.
Without the original holes, I had a little freedom when assembling some things. I put in new hinges for the engine cover. I had to modify the viewers seat base 'cause the second battery sits underneath it a little.
While I had the whole mess apart, I also added a depth finder, a dual battery switch, resealed everything attached to the transom, had to relocate the fire extinguisher.
I originally had the sub mounted to an open air frame under the bow. I made an actual box for it, sealed and carpeted with the same as the floor.
We had plans for the 4th of July, I was working on it everynight after work for hours to get it ready. We finished it at 11:00 the night before we left. When we got to the lake, we tried to fire it up, had to crank it for a minute cause I had replaced the fuel filter. My starting battery came with the boat, I don't know how old it was, but it died. We had to start it with the deep cycle battery. When it fired it started squeaking, I realized I had forgot to hook the water supply hose to the water pump. You really can't run it without water, so the pump impellor burnt up. Luckly the marina had a replacement. So I only had a couple problems, but we had a great time once we got going.